New Salem

We spent a fun Saturday at New Salem historic site, enjoying the traditional music festival. The music was wonderful, the weather was perfect, and we all had a great day out.

PS -- notice the t-shirt. That was MY elementary school t-shirt! 26 years later and still going strong. Whatever they paid for it, it was a bargain!












Trying to scare people by jumping out from behind the tree.




Playing "teacher" in the old schoolhouse.









Listening to the music with Daddy.




Practising for later. When he's famous. Obviously.





Some random New Salem shots.








And here's a quick update on Kellan's first two weeks at school. It has been absolutely fantastic. He LOVES it. We are so pleased and impressed with the programme. The teachers and staff are lovely, the environment is wonderful, the schedule and curriculum are perfect. Kellan hops into the car every afternoon and says, "That was FUN!".

They do "work" all morning, have individual lessons and then practise what they've learned. Each child has an individual curriculum which the teacher works to. The children work on their own, but are directed to appropriate work by the teachers. After a morning's lessons and work, they go to the playground for 45 minutes, followed by lunch and, if they want to, nap. This is our only issue so far. They don't have to nap, but Kellan has decided that he likes to and has napped every school day thus far. Which means that he is not going to bed on time at night, he is getting up at the crack of pre-dawn, and on weekends he is an absolute nightmare after lunchtime because, darn it, he needs a nap. They do the afternoon nap for two years, so I suppose that we'll just have to deal with it.

Kel has a couple of special friends so far, Gannon and Zane. He is eating a great lunch everyday. Loves his teachers. He has one man and one woman teacher, so we hear stories about the "Mommy teacher" and the "Daddy teacher" when he comes home. At open house this week I asked his teachers, generally, how he's doing, how he's settling in. They both actually laughed, then smiled and said, "He's REALLY enjoying himself!".

The school is year round, and I found out this week that there are only a couple of very short breaks in the year. We're pretty well set now through sixth grade. Though there was talk of extending through eighth grade by the time that Kel will be there, so we may be in luck.

We love the Montessori philosophy, it is perfect for Kel's learning style. The teachers are very hands on and loving, no shortage of hugs, cuddles, and encouragement in the classroom. The school itself is very open to teaching the parents about how they work and about what our children are doing in the classroom, and already there is a great feeling of camaraderie among even us new parents. So far, so good...